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Magra's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | | 11:07 pm |
to all of you who read this:
Never, ever buy dell products, and tell your friends not to buy them either, unless you want to spend a month, ten hours of phone calls, six phone calls to us technical support and four to chinese technical support without having your problem resolved. all because your computer is missing a hard drive. seriously, though - after getting hung up on by the last representative, it seems like the least I can do to attempt to convince my friends not to subject themselves to the same incompetence. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 9:43 pm |
| | Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 | | 2:05 pm |
a dream
no, I won't be posting here too often, but I thought you would be entertained to hear how scrabble remains a subconscious part of my life. I was playing a tournament, and though it was early I was doing pretty well - well enough that my next opponent was david eldar, who looked to be a middle-aged man, unexpectedly. Anyway, we played for a while, and I thought I was doing quite well until all of a sudden I woke up (though not actually), the game was over, the board was strewn with bingos, and a significantly younger-looking guy (though still looking nothing like the actual david eldar) was chastising me for my incredibly poor play. where are the dream analysts when you need them? | | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 10:58 am |
the rumors are true
blogspot is currently behind the great firewall of china, so no other blog for me. at least, not until I figure out what I'm doing. no laptop either, but there's a supercheap internet cafe that I'm at right now like ten minutes from campus. this isn't my real blog so I'm not going to go on at length. but. finding a place to eat while only being able to speak chinese = terrifying | | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 5:15 pm |
alive!
uberquick post on other blog to follow. | | Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | | 1:55 am |
this is it
all packed and ready to go. well, as ready as I'm going to be. I wonder what the single most important thing I'm forgetting is. other than that...here we go! | | Sunday, June 7th, 2009 | | 4:04 pm |
| | 3:01 pm |
Scrabble elsewhere
I was looking around the World Championship page to find out who's qualified from other countries, and as usual there's pretty much no way of telling. The exception: Australia's website, where they have their own cross-tables equivalent that includes easily accessible qualification standards for all of the main tournaments. They also have some cool-looking regional tournaments of which we don't really have US equivalents - wouldn't a new england team tournament be excellent? Mass versus new york? I bet connecticut in its heyday could've put up a fight... witness here
Their qualification system is also pretty clearly an improvement on ours, in my opinion. But maybe it would be tricky to implement. I would be very curious to see what would happen if you implemented those exact same measures on our ratings just to see who would end up making it. Although with worlds on the other side of the planet, I suppose that wouldn't quite be the same measure of exclusivity. Actually, the player of the year standings seem to mimic the Australian system to some degree - that would be an interesting way to go about choosing a team. Grr, wish I could go to worlds. A look at scrabble in beijing reveals absolutely nothing. It turns out there might have been scrabble to be had in hong kong last summer as well if I'd only looked in the right places. but oh well... | | Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | | 3:14 am |
wow, bedtime
I have a visa! also had a great time in the city. tomorrow, off to new haven for the day... | | Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | | 4:00 pm |
In NYC!
My form came through this morning, which means I took the bus to the city and I'm currently hanging out in my friend's sweet new apartment. It's really fun to see how he's already set up. gives me hope for myself. FRANK - give me a call at some point so we can coordinate if you want to meet up tomorrow. | | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | | 2:06 pm |
so much for that
the fax never arrived after all, so my trip to new york is postponed. unfortunately, my fate now lies in the hands of a lazy bureaucrat with odd work hours, according to my contact in the program. anyone want to do something or other? | | 1:14 am |
life is hard
that is all. no, just kidding. I'm going to include at least a little more detail than that. But I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, which no doubt has to do with why I've taken so long to write down my life recap. In short: everything has changed so quickly that I'm left trying to catch up and fathom everything. Thus I never really know exactly how I'm going to feel. Sometimes I've been nostalgic. Other times I feel as excited as ever - and why shouldn't I be, right? but it's hard not to think about things being left behind. The rest of this post will be in order of importance rather than chronology, though parts will manifest internal chronology. Read as much or as little as you want. I'm going to new york tomorrow to pick up my visa to china. For a while it looked like I was in trouble as far as getting a student visa because I'd lost a crucial form, a fact I only discovered last week when I traveled down to the consulate the day after graduation. But yeah, I was able to obtain a copy of the form, mercifully, which means that all of my problems on that front should be taken care of. I also have to make one more trip to new haven before I go to sell my bike, visit the travel clinic and...something else. that's right, close my mailbox. maybe I'll get a slice of pizza for old time's sake. my dorm is already well under reconstruction. it will never look the same again. I don't know if I want to go check out the carnage or avoid it altogether. OK. Important things. How do I choose between one important life event and the other? I have no idea. But graduation seems like a reasonably important occurrence. The ceremony to me seemed to alternate between anticlimax and, well, climax. In the sense that nothing at a graduation ceremony ever goes quite right, which I wasn't expecting. That's not really a surprise - we're all just college students suddenly forced to wear cap and gown, right? Somehow I had a hard time mustering up the pride that I think one's supposed to feel at these events. I think for a lot of people, the event was dominated by a sense of preemptive loss. As Ian pointed out, everyone was acting a little strangely in those last few days, myself included, no doubt. Nonetheless, I think I managed to have a great last day of college. My suite and I all went to Sushi Palace, a delicious all-you-can-eat place in Hamden where they somehow maintain a certain artistry to their compositions even as I go back and order thirds, fourths and fifths. On the way back our zipcar ran out of time which meant we had to put seven people in a mini cooper?!?! then we stayed up all night together, hung out on the roof for a while, went to the top of harkness tower to see the sun rise which was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen...maybe I'll post my iphone pictures some day. Then on top of a tower in the distance I spotted a friend, and we met up and threw frisbees around for a couple of hours! I left at about ten to 8 after resting in the hammock in the courtyard for just a little bit, before saying goodbye to everyone who was still around. Robert (not quigley, for the record) almost made me cry. Hell, that's still how I feel. But after that, a series of events not really worth recounting led to me missing my train. I'm a big believer in small moments being just as important as big moments, but for whatever reason it still hurts me a little bit that I didn't have the chance to reflect just a little bit more because I was so busy trying to catch my damn train. What a stupid regret to have. It's sad that this is so far down here. I suppose it's a sign that there are many important things going on. But the Saturday before graduation I took zu to laguardia, at the conclusion of a great week which saw us first visit kate up in maine and then go camping for a couple of days up around franconia notch. First off, staying with kate was absolutely fabulous. Their house is in a beautiful little nook. As I walked around it I couldn't help but think that this was my mom's dream house in so many ways. It was also great because kate taught me, through the way she lives her life up in maine, that I can balance scrabble with whatever else I do, as opposed to ignoring it entirely as I've done for the last three months. anyway, delicious food was had, the wii was played, and even a beautiful game of scrabble occurred. I think I'll post it if the scoresheet is lying around. though maybe once I'm back from new york. really, I wish I could just go to tim and kate's house for a week when I don't have anything else going on. But sometimes I fear that I'll have something else going on every day for the rest of my life. which is a stupid way to feel, but in many ways that's how last semester felt. although here I am, lying on the couch eating ice cream, and I think I feel restless more than anything. Then, on wednesday, a day later than planned, zu and I took off for beautiful little Franconia Notch, the former site of the man in the mountain. It turns out that the whole region used to be a very popular destination in the late 19th century for the well-to-do, including most presidents, until a lot of the famous hotels in the area burnt down. Anyway, I'd borrowed a ton of camping gear from Ian (my suitemate, to reiterate) and we set up for the night at lafayette campground. To add to the fun we went and bought 40 bucks worth of groceries (I still have no idea what we purchased that cost so much) and somehow over the next two days cooked a huge amount of meat and other goodies, often in the dark. I love how competent zu is, because if I were left to my own devices I would surely have driven off in search of the closest wendy's. So we spent a couple of days going on hikes, including the jaw-dropping flume (I have a thing for weird geological formations, apparently) and a lake where we took our shoes off and watched a bunch of half-tadpole/half-frogs. They were fascinating to watch. I am uncreatively tempted to equate them to myself, but I might die of triteness. On the whole it was a perfect week. I don't think there is a single thing I would've changed. as far as leaving zu. I don't think I'm capable of talking about exactly how I felt. We spent an hour at the airport trying to muster up the resolve to leave each other. By the time I went home I felt as though I'd aged by ten years. On the drive back to New Haven I was in a state of low-level mania - blasting my favorite muse cd, driving mediocrely, randomly deciding to track down the closest krispy kreme and buying a dozen donuts, then for no apparent reason stopping at the tackiest chinese place I could find, then trying to eat the chinese food, chopsticks and all, while driving in stop and go I95 traffic. I can't really remember a stranger afternoon. I remember the first really agonizing split of my life - the last year I was at CTYI. I don't think I've ever been as distraught as I was then. A key part of my life ended abruptly. I had a sense of hollowness, the knowledge that part of my existence had been excised. I was going to have to rebuild my life to fill in that which I was leaving behind. It might be an overreaction to a summer camp, I guess. But it was a really dear part of my life that I still miss today. Leaving Zu was the second agonizing departure of my life, though of course it would be followed in quick succession by having to leave all of my friends post-graduation. You might understand how I feel a bit overwhelmed. Finally, Myrtle Beach. I went down there with the rest of my big extended suite, 14 people in all (minus a couple of folks, including Ian). It was supposed to be the last hurrah for the "minitower", as it was known, but it turned out in a pretty interesting and unexpected manner. Essentially, when you have enough people together for that long of a time, no matter how good of a friend you are with most people, things will come up - in my case, a disastrous failed relationship earlier this year which I cryptically alluded to as it hindenburged its way down. I thought that I was on good terms with her, but it was evident that she was not entirely happy with me for whatever reason. and really, I can't blame her. I still can't get over how poorly I behaved. but beyond just that, there were so many oddities - the incestuous couples spent most of their time hanging out with each other rather than us, there was a sharp division between the "responsible" people and the people who took charge of the trip, whether we wanted them to or not...there was even tension between the big eaters and vegetarians by the end of it. a ridiculous affair. myrtle beach is also just kind of ridiculous in general. There were minigolf courses left and right - it might actually be the minigolf capital of the US. no joke. we played a few times, including one legendary round where emily, who had never played any form of golf whatsoever before that afternoon, challenged dan to get a tattoo and tony to get a belly-button piercing if she beat them - and then proceeded to take them down to the last hole by displaying entirely unexpected golf skillz. She was up on tony by five strokes at one point, but to his credit he came back and continues to have an untouched navel. further wackiness came about because we all kept going to the same nightclub every night, as did the entirety of yale that was down there. and none of us are really super-partying types except for minh and emily, and yet there we were, going at it from midnight to 3 every night for three nights in a row. absurd. there was also a great late night waffle house run at 4:30 , after which dan and I drove minh to the airport and then stayed up to watch the sun rise. it was lovely. I also got roped into karaoke one night, doing a duo with dan, and for some reason my mic was much louder than his and it was beatles karaoke. that is not where I expected my life to go. for some reason I also had a fauxhawk that night, and I think the country-loving karaoke crowd was slightly bemused by my performance. ok, but the last night in town was the most ridiculous in far. starting with the day, where five of us decided to go to the nascar experience, advertised as go-karting. I love gokarts. It was interesting because that day the factions finally clarified themselves once and for all - the tame bunch, who went to botanical gardens all day, the couples, who stayed home, and then us, going off and nascaring. except it was too expensive, so we went to an arcade instead and goofed around for a while. so after hitting up steaknshake for, well, you guessed it, we went home and lazy rivered and hottubbed until we happened to strike up conversation with this south carolinian high schooler named zack who turned out to be really sharp and a real pleasure to talk to, as well as his adorable younger brother zarius. anyway - we talked for an hour or two until he mentioned that there was an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet nearby, which immediately piqued our attention. I mentioned big eaters before - well, the four of us who were left, me, emily, dan and vanessa, all love our food. emily eats more than I do on a regular basis. we were excited. here's where it gets ridiculous. I go back up to our place and ask if anyone is interested in going to this joint. I receive blank stares until one of the motherly types explains that we have a lot of food left over (food he had bought, mind you) and that we were being irresponsible by not staying in and eating it. anyway, discouraged, I went and took a shower, and then came back out twenty minutes later to see dan. Despondently, I asked dan if he was going to cook up the rest of the meat and make his trademark burgers. to which he, as passive-aggressive as I've ever seen him, answers: "I was hoping to go eat some seafood!" From that point onwards, we were on the same page. The Eaters, as we named ourselves - me, dan, emily and vanessa - all took off, much to the barely concealed anger of many of the rest of our suite. It was absolutely fantastic. we met up with zack and his huge extended family and had a fabulous dinner. after that, we left the seafood place and had an absolutely preposterous night that I'm not allowed to ever tell anyone about. I'm so so tempted to drop hints but I don't think I would ever be forgiven. but we rolled back into the suite at about 1 after leaving for dinner at 7, and then cooked a pound and a half of burgers and ate them all. and then I woke up at 6 am and drove to new haven myself, since no else in my car could drive. craziness. there have been so many good moments in the last month. a couple of random things - I saw jason yesterday! I love seeing him so much. I had such a good time showing him around hong kong last summer. I kind of made him promise to travel with me in january if he gets the chance...so exciting!!! I am seriously considering playing a tournament in malaysia the weekend after causeway. I'm planning on some kind of extended south-east asia tour, and that would be a good starting point. Not to mention that I'm seriously jonesing for scrabble as is. really, the dominant emotion about next year right now is excitement. intense excitement. beijing will be out of this world. I can't wait to get started. while also being terrified, of course. So, this is where I am. Now you know. Hopefully I have a little bit better of an idea of where I am as well. shell-shocked. happy. glad that I have so many good friends. | | 1:09 am |
| | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 5:17 pm |
| | 4:24 pm |
my travel blog
hey folks, I've told a few of you this already, but I'm starting a new blog to chronicle my time in Beijing, as required by my fellowship. the webaddress is http://daisiwen.blogspot.com, complete with shiny first post. My Chinese name is Dai Siwen (I would write the characters except that my laptop is in the shop), hence the blog name. My plan right now is to link to every post that I post on my other journal, as follows: Why do I start what I can't finish?however, I'm also open to the idea of cross-posting every blog post I make over there. It might actually be possible in the long run to get lj to autopost anything I post over there - anyone know anything about doing that? this is still not the major life update promised. I'm going to the gym right now, but once I'm back I'll hopefully sit down and get it done. also, nice soxblogging, evans. | | 1:07 am |
| | Friday, May 29th, 2009 | | 10:29 pm |
it's baaack
I guarantee a real post, hopefully tonight - but: A long, long time ago, I was a fan of a fledgling sport broadcast on spike tv named slamball. the concept is absolutely ridiculous: full-contact basketball on trampolines. But somehow the product, while not always taking itself entirely seriously, actually featured a ton of excitement and even some legitimate strategy. How many of you have played a sport where the strategy had to be designed from scratch? Even ultimate's fundamentals have solidified at this point. every team runs a zone. every player learns to cut the same way. well, slamball didn't do so well. The TV deal lasted a couple of seasons before, depending on who you believe, the ratings started to drop or spike tv's ludicrous presentation became intolerable. In any case, slamball and its small crowd of rabid enthusiasts (they made websites and everything) gradually went into dormancy, until... ...as I was surfing around wikipedia, a query about kareem abdul-jabbar led me to the slamball page. And against the odds, slamball is back! It apparently broadcast in Italy in 2008, amazingly, before making a return to US tv! and to think I had no idea at all! But now, just in time for my trip to China, they're releasing another season, this time on cartoon network?! in any case. I will not be around to witness this, and hulu doesn't work abroad, nor would I expect them to pick up such c-level programming (they seem firmly b-level and above). But - if you like basketball, football, and watching a legitimate sport that no one has ever played before, ever, then take a look at it. Hopefully this time around the silliness of spike tv coverage will be removed and there will be more emphasis on the fact that slamball is actually really sweet. | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 1:58 am |
a random little question...
for those of you going to the wsc, how are you planning to get there? yes, you're presumably flying there, but do you have to go through kuala lumpur? no reason for my questioning, just curious because johor is kind of off the beaten track... I plan on a big post tomorrow. in fact, I will hopefully get many things done tomorrow, or at least more than I managed to today. departure date for china - june 10 | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 9:20 pm |
This is it, for real this time
My last paper of college is due tomorrow. It's 15-20 pages long. I have 9, and a pretty clear idea of where I'm going, so all is well. Just need to crack down and do it. byaaah. I also have to meet with my thesis advisor after having implemented one last change to my program, and I have to provide him a copy of all of my files as well, and then hopefully I've produced something that will get published sooner or later. None of this would be a big deal if I hadn't gone to a tournament this weekend. but I did. went up to middlebury, which is a gorgeous little town in the middle of nowhere. Great ultimate, and the craziest party I have ever seen. There's not much more I could ask for to end my ultimate career at yale. | | Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | | 4:11 am |
My new favorite anagram pair
SUBAHDAR and BAHADURS! also, collins has SUBAHDARY# and some alternate spellings. it makes me happy that I can always come across sweet new words I've never seen before. progress update: I now have a table of contents and an appendix. unfortunately, I am still nowhere close to being done. |
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